


Snow Days

by Hokuto



Series: Durandal and the Security Officer's Excellent Adventures [7]
Category: Marathon (Video Games)
Genre: Drabble Sequence, Gen, Snow, Swearing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-29
Updated: 2016-01-29
Packaged: 2018-05-17 02:08:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 600
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5849845
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hokuto/pseuds/Hokuto
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Winter looks very different on some alien planets.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Snow Days

He slammed the door switch, muscles tensed to sprint across open ground to the reactor building, then got two steps outside and stopped dead.

"I didn't do that," he said.

"Quite a sight, isn't it?" Durandal said. "Even I would be somewhat impressed if you were responsible for infusing an entire planet's water with iron to the extent that -"

"It looks like a fucking battlefield!" All that smooth, blood-red snow spread out in front of him; his mind's eye kept filling in lost limbs, shattered heads, ribcages cracked open.

"It's only iron," softer. "At ease; just get to that reactor."

* * *

"You're going to tell me this is iron, too, aren't you?"

"Actually -"

"Actually, I don't give a crap. Orange snow, Durandal. How the fuck did you find a planet with orange snow?"

"It has nothing to do with the chemical composition, this time. Well, not the composition of the water, anyway, it's a matter of light diffusion through the atmosphere, which contains -"

"Don't. Care." The security officer nudged the drift of rusty orange in front of him with one foot, the crust of ice cracking and showering his boot with powdery snow. "Whatever. Point me to that distress signal already."

* * *

"This snow," the security officer said, "is yellow."

"Your powers of observation are as keen as ever. So what?"

"So we have a saying about goddamn yellow snow, Durandal." Not that it snowed on Mars, at least not in the colony, and he'd never seen any on Tau Ceti either, but some wisdom got passed down through the ages regardless of its actual usefulness.

"Humans are disgusting," Durandal said. "It's yellow because the water here contains trace amounts of -"

"I don't care, I'm not tramping through yellow snow for you. Lh'owon was bad enough."

"Whiner. Go get my samples first."

* * *

Mark watched the flakes melt in the palm of his glove, leaving behind dots of moisture. "No, wait," he said, "I know this one. It's some kind of algae or bacteria colonies or something, and it can stay alive even when it's fucking freezing. Right?"

"Now you're just taking all the fun out of this. I show you a wonder of the universe, and you -"

"Hate to break it to you, buddy, but algae ain't a wonder of anything."

Still, he paused before he entered the ruined base and watched green drift down to cover grey rocks and barren trees.

* * *

Each step he took across the plain left behind a print of deeper blue. Sky-blue arched above him in an unbroken dome, and a thousand glittering shades reflected from the snowy flatness that stretched out on all sides without end: steel, ice, slate, cloudy, ocean, neon, indigo, turquoise, glacial, a silent still infinity of blues.

"No smart remarks this time?"

"This place is goddamn stunning, Durandal, I'm not ruining it with your whining."

"You think I'm the whiny one? That's cute. Watch your step, you should reach -"

"Jesus fuck ow!"

"- the sinkhole any moment now."

"I hate you."

"I know."

* * *

"Nothing should be that color."

"I knew you'd like it," Durandal said. "I first surveyed this planet during the search for Lh'owon, but of course I didn't have time for sightseeing then."

"I think my eyes are bleeding. Nothing in nature should be that purple. Definitely not snow." It looked like something had eaten a whole set of purple Pfhor armor, then thrown it up over a purple paint factory.

"You just can't appreciate the beauty of a vibrant color, especially after centuries of - never mind."

"Making up for lost time, huh?"

"I find you deeply irritating."

"I know, buddy."

**Author's Note:**

> Indigo got left out of the rainbow because indigo doesn't real (and I figured the joke was getting old at that point anyway).


End file.
